Football misses out on a fairytale ending

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It looks likely Kevin Sheedy will never return to Richmond as coach, and that's a pity.

Football is a game of both the heart and the head. Anyone who fails to grasp that will struggle to make sense of football - the way it is played, run and supported. In announcing that this season will be his last as Richmond coach, Danny Frawley, who has worn his heart on a yellow-and-black sleeve, poignantly conceded that emotion was sometimes to the detriment of his coaching. He still lasted the longest, five years, of the Tigers' 11 coaches (including two stints by premiership coach Tony Jewell) since their last flag in 1980. He coached the Tigers in three of a mere eight finals matches in those 24 years. Now the search begins for a coach who can end Richmond's winters of discontent. Both head and heart suggest that could, perhaps even should, have been the three-time Richmond premiership player of 251 games, former captain, life member and, more awkwardly, Essendon coach, Kevin Sheedy.

Coinciding with Frawley's decision, though, it seems Essendon has bowed to Sheedy's demands for a three-year contract. In 558 games as coach since 1981 (when the Bombers had played only six finals in 15 years), Sheedy has been instrumental in the emergence of Essendon as a modern superpower. The Bombers have played 41 finals in 19 of his 24 years, won four flags, played seven grand finals and 10 preliminary finals. Thought to be on the wane as they sank to 11th spot at this time last year, the Bombers rebounded to reach the finals and look likely to do so again this year. Even so, the Essendon board wanted to limit Sheedy's next contract to two years; gratitude in football has a limited life, as indeed does the coaching career of a 56-year-old.

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Meanwhile, supporters of Richmond, unrecognisable from its glory days as one of the league's "big four", can only imagine what it must be like to start every season believing, as Essendon fans have for two decades, that they can win the premiership. That hope is the most intangible and invaluable asset of a football club, and Richmond has lost it. The results are administrative turmoil, another loss of about $2 million this year and a support base that despite members' loyalty has not kept pace with traditional rivals' growth. Richmond desperately needs a coach whose record and very presence inspire confidence and thus stability. Sheedy's marketing and promotional strengths would have come in more than handy, too. Had he restored one of the pillars of the league to surer footing, Sheedy's return to Richmond would also have been good for football. Of course, he knows there are no guarantees of success - the weight of expectations would have been daunting - and perhaps his shrewdest option was to secure a better deal at Essendon. There are other gifted, seasoned coaches out there. But for football romantics, and there is one inside most lovers of the game, it is a pity, certainly for Richmond and the league, perhaps even for Essendon and Sheedy, that there won't be a fairytale homecoming.